I am rather confused and was wondering if there are any who are familiar with this process. We leased our car in CA and then moved to New Orleans early this year. I did not register the car as I did not ever have the free time to visit (from what I hear) the highly dysfunctional LA state dmv with full day wait times. I had also just re-registered our car with CA the month prior to the move.
My big mistake of changing insurance to LA from CA also gave me pause. I had a all insurance levels maxed in CA and paid about $88/mo. Moving to LA I had to greatly reduce coverage and pay $193/mo.
Currently, my tags expire in December and the lease is up in May. I’m really confused about what to do and am not seeing resources on how LA specifically handles out of state transfers for leases and tax. What I do see is that to register an out of state vehicle in Orleans parish is 9.5% “road use tax” on the original vehicle value. In my case that would be about $4000.
Also my current lease wraps CA tax into the payment. What happens to that when I claim residency in another state? Does my lease payment change to pay LA tax?
If anyone has been through this process with The state of Louisiana and has any advice, I would love to hear it.
Call the leasing company and notify them of the move to stop paying CA tax on lease payment. They should also be able to help letting you know what your tax implications are, but DMV will be final authority
After 30 days you have to switch your license and registration. If you haven’t and you’re still running CA on those but insurance in LA…I’d want that fixed asap
You probably need to look at another insurance company to shop coverage AND cost
Moving states sucks: I’ve done it 3 times in about 8 years. The sooner you get it all sorted the better.
Louisiana will offer you a tax credit for the “road use tax” for taxes paid in CA. According to this chart you will be credited 7.25%. Additionally, it mentions an exemption for leased vehicles.
" Leased vehicles are exempt from Louisiana sales/use taxes if the lessor:
A. Holds a valid sales tax exemption number with the Department of Revenue and Taxation.
regarding sales tax exemptions for lease/rental vehicles.
B. Can show proof of payment, other than a certificate of title, of sales/use taxes to the other state. "
The problem you have is that you have not paid the taxes/registration due within 30 days of moving to the state. They will charge you penalties and interest for this error. I’m not sure if the penalties are 25% of the tax due or 25% of the vehicle value (it’s not clear, it only says “25%”). Of course you could simply inform them that the car arrived in LA last week after letting your family member in CA continue to use the car until last week. They probably have no way of verifying your cousin’s use of the car in Los Angeles but I would never advocate telling them something not true.
